Audi – World Endurance Championship

Audi prides itself on its illustrious motorsport history and at the Le Mans 24 Hours – the world’s most famous and challenging endurance race – Audi has shown its true spirit of speed, endurance and technical innovation, winning 12 of the last 14 races. Audi has extended this performance into the World Endurance Championship. The competition takes the spirit of Le Mans around the globe and is the ideal platform for Audi to prove its endurance racing performance, winning the championship in 2013. Audi, with the help of Castrol EDGE, wants to defend its title during the eight-race 2014 season.

Castrol and Audi go the distance at Le Mans yet again

In 2013, Audi conquered Le Mans for the 12th time. Such triumphs rely on meticulous preparation, great engineering, cast-iron reliability, superhuman stamina and great tactical timing, not to mention a strong engine oil that can keep things running perfectly – Castrol EDGE

R18 E-TRON QUATTRO

Audi is using an updated version of the Le Mans winning R18 e-tron Quattro for the 2014 WEC season. The advanced racer uses two hybrid systems to gather energy that would otherwise be wasted, and use it to boost performance. One stores energy created when braking. This energy can then be sent to the front wheels to deliver a boost, turning the e-tron quattro into a four-wheel-drive hybrid racer with increased power and traction. The second system recovers heat energy from the exhaust which can be used to operate an electrically-driven turbocharger to boost power. With gruelling events such as Le Mans, the R18 e-tron Quattro is possibly the ultimate test for Castrol’s strongest engine oil.

Team strength

A total of ten drivers form the squad for the 24-hour race at Le Mans and for the World Endurance Championship, here we profile two of the best.

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Tom Kristensen

The Audi squad is led by Tom Kristensen, the king of endurance racing. Tom exploded onto the Le Mans scene in 1997 and shocked everyone by winning the 24-hour race on debut. Tom boasts an unbelievable nine wins from 13 Le Mans finishes, and in the four he didn’t win, he still finished on the podium. He also clinched the WEC title in 2013.

Loic Duval

The quick Frenchman who lives in Tokyo came to Audi in 2012 and clinched the 2013 WEC title with Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish. He has held the race lap record at Le Mans since 2010.

Calendar

The WEC is the ultimate test of man and machine, pushing the boundaries of speed, stamina and skill. The 2014 WEC eight-race season will take the teams around Europe and to USA, Japan, China and Bahrain from March to November.

28-29 March

Testing at Circuit Paul Ricard (FRA)

18-20 April

Silverstone (GBR)

2-3 May

Spa-Francorchamps (BEL)

1 June

24 Heures du Mans Test (FRA)

14-15 June

24 Heures du Mans (FRA)

29-31 August (TBC)

Sao Paulo* ( BRA)

18-20 September

Circuit of the Americas (USA)

3-5 October

Fuji (JPN)

31 October–1 November

Shanghai (CHN)

13-15 November

Bahrain International Circuit (BHN)

About WEC

The World Endurance Championship takes the fever of Le Mans around the globe and brings the most exciting endurance racing action to some of the world’s toughest tracks. Advanced aerodynamics help the cars achieve top speeds of 350km/h, but what is most amazing is that these high-tech cars need to be reliable enough to be driven on the limit for 24 hours over distances of more than 5,000km, non-stop. It’s the perfect proving ground for Castrol EDGE.